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 Back to Solutions: Concentrating Growth and Development
Brownfields
Brownfield programs are seeking to reclaim thousands of parcels that stand vacant and unused in our cities and towns because of contamination from toxic and hazardous wastes. The hope is that the reclamation of these sites will lessen the need for developers to build on the suburban fringe.
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| The City of Somerville, Massachusetts, is just one of hundreds of communities across the country coping with dozens of sites contaminated by hazardous waste. With help from a federal browfields pilot grant, Somerville has embarked on an ambitious program to remediate and redevelop these sites, many in prime locations. The site on the left has not yet been remediated; the site on the right, the "Boynton Yards" is now home to three new businesses. |
The Fall 1998 issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal focused on how brownfields are being transformed into productive use. Read excerpts from the issue; the feature articles can be ordered & downloaded online.
Ohio voters passed a $400 million open space/farmland preservation / brownfields bond issue in November 2000. $200 million will be devoted to brownfields clean up. For more details and links, go to our Ohio page.
Successful efforts by Minnesota citizens to have the state adopt legislation that allocates $68 million to begin cleaning up Minnesota's 4,000 acres of brownfields are chronicled by Beth Newkirk in "Leveling the Playing Field" from the March/April 1998 issue of Shelterforce magazine.
The Environmental Protection Agency has provided funding to states, cities, towns, counties, and tribes to assist with the revitalization of brownfield sites. The EPA brownfields web site has a wide array of information on federal brownfield programs.
The Trust for Public Lands has information on brownfield sties that have been converted into park and recreation areas.
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